Thoughts on Big Centerboarders?

[eskfreedom]

We have a Maple Leaf 42 and have had no problems. The previous owners did the big circle with no problems. As with all boats everything is a crompromise a little mor maintence but you can go places others cant. There are those that have run aground and those that are gunna run aground. I like having four more feet of water to be one of gunnas instead one of the havs!! Don't let em scare you centerboards are just fine as long as your not lazy and you keep up on your maintenance as with all things on a boat..

[freetime]

Northshore Yachts

Southerly, looks very nice.

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by freetime

Northshore Yachts

Southerly, looks very nice.

They have a very good reputation even in bad weather. I like their airy saloons particularly.

If you are looking for a really shallow draft boat, this should be a major contender.

[Steve Pope]

the devil is in the detail, there are many well designed centre boarders out there, the French have embraced them for years, though many have been built elsewhere as well. re the yacht that lost its board when being pulled of the reef backwards, would it be possible that they "forgot" to fasten the board in the up position prior to attempting to pull it off the reef ??
Ovni as a bad design ? there are plenty of them being sailed around the world, would like more first hand info rather than hearsay.
My Trismus has 2 hinged boards that swing up when the sea bottom gets in the way as well as the keel being 700 mm's wide at its widest point allowing it to sit freestanding without any supports if you do take the ground. A real boon when you want to scrub the hull, the sea bottom needs to be level though.

[Amgine]

I have to say I'm still a huge fan of lee boards, and in the bigger boats I've seen sailing with 'em they seem to get to all the places I'm going with at least as much comfort and ease as I do. But, I've never sailed one myself so I don't know the idiosyncracies of the systems.

Back when I was sailing on Lake Pepin in the upper Mississippi there were a couple fibreglass Meadowlarks, a Herreshoff design. They sure looked nice, easy on and off the trailers, and almost headroom. Scaled up a bit and it would have been a good cruiser.

[iiii]

Sailed a Morgan 34 with a board for 9 years. Was great when the levels got low in the Great Lakes and for the Bahamas. Never had any problems with the board itself other than trying to apply bottom paint, need a GOOD relationship with the guys at your haulout!

[freetime]

I like...

Southerly

Northshore Yachts


Ovni

lifting keel Ovni

Feeling

Alliaura

[Aparrotwind]

We have a Mapleleaf 42 with centerboard and love it! 7 feet down and 4.5 feet up...it's great!

[waterworldly]

When we had our Irwin 52 surveyed for purchase, they attempted to drop the centerboard while it was in the slings. The poor excuse for a captain who ran the boat for the owner unhooked it and PLOP, it fell to the ground, almost killing me. The pendent was corroded through. We ended up buying this otherwise wonderful yacht, and replaced the pendent on the first haulout. Lesson learned: if you are being hauled, check the board and pendent EVERY time.

[Steve Pope]

When we bought our Centreboarder the pendants were SS wire with enough sprags to catch and tear your skin almost everytime you used it, we changed to Dyneena and no more sprags, wonderful.

[John Drake]

I have a 20 yo Hood 38 with a keel/CB that I have owned for almost 7 yrs and have been cruising for 2.5 yrs now. Never a problem with the CB. It is solidly in place and does not shift on tacks. It is useful not only for going to weather but for when sailing under 4 knots...it really limits leeward slippage.

It has required no maintenance at all...which has been surprising. I check it about every two yrs. When the cable does need to be replaced, I will likely use Dyneema or similar as well.

The reason I got it was it allowed the boat to be designed with a very shoal draft...4.5ft. GREAT for FL and the Bahama's...and the ches. I cannot recount how many times the charts had good 7ft MLLW for miles...and the depth was really 5ft. Yacht Channel in the Keys for example. 4.5 ft has allowed me to glide down Biscayne Bay without grief nor care...amoung many places.

Just a data point for you. Hope this is helpful.

Best

John

[Kev]

Just seen this thread. We are the happy owners of an Ovni yacht , dare say yacht since it's over 40 ft right ? , actually 43.5 ft, with a draft of less than 3ft when the centerboard is up and over 8 ft when down. The previous owner already sailed over 25 000 NM but kept her in good conditions... We have had no real issues besides the normal maintenance work required on most boats.
So if you have specific questions let me know.
Cheers, Kev

[Sergy]

I also have 42 ‘ maple leaf with swivel center board, as far as see life in the trunk my experience was that when I had to shovel mussels off the hull when you look up into the trunk all looked new.
Someone told me that marine life, like some light, and the inside of trunk was too dark so no growth there . Of course I live in Canada water temp. about 68*F so this might be a total different story in the tropics. Now I am curious am I to expect this to change when I go south?

[Kev]

No actually not much difference in our case ... so far (despite the fact i am curious to see that when we return to the boat after several weeks in the same mooring)
As for our ovni boat most of the centerboard trunk is above the water line; so besides a couple of inches usually not a big effort to clean that part.

[Aparrotwind]

We are replacing our centerboard with 2" thick UHMW - should be indestructible if hit head on and clean very easily too. 16 months till we cut the lines and head out for a world adventure!